


against dying

by flowercrow



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Inspired by Poetry, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 15:08:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29297925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowercrow/pseuds/flowercrow
Summary: very short experimental exploration of khalid in glimpses. idk
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	against dying

_I want both my countries  
to be right_

_to fear me._

_We have lost  
whatever_

_we had to lose._

— Kaveh Akbar

Portrait of a child: Khalid, when he was just Khalid, though called names; Khalid, who learned early to keep his face unreadable, nearly succumbing to tears when he sees a wounded bird under a tree. He crouches low, approaches quietly, picks the animal up into his palms. It doesn’t stir, though Khalid can see its chest rise and fall, its eye staring into his. 

“It’s okay,” he whispers, “it will be okay.” To himself, or to the bird. To life, against dying. 

***

When Khalid first meets the pale wyvern, sticking out like a sore thumb among its brethren, promised an early death, he smiles, and says firmly: “that one.” 

***

After the first time Khalid wounds a man with his sword, the sound of blade into flesh reverberating through his body, he returns to the bow and arrow, decides that he prefers its distance. It is a calculated decision, though it may be seen as cowardly. 

***

All this to say: Khalid values life. His own, too. 

*** 

Portrait of a boy who grows into a man: despite the cruelties, the boy will not die. Khalid continues to grow, into muscles and broad shoulders, calloused hands, scars mapping his body. Khalid, in the body of the undying prince, keeps the heart of a boy who wishes for kindness so vast it scares him. 

*** 

In a small village near the capital, Khalid, still a boy, sits with an old woman he calls nene, word for grandma, chews greedily on the persimmon she shares with him, sweetness trickling down his elbows. She starts the story as fairy tales do in Almyra: _there once was, there once was not_ — all the possibilities; _there once was, there once was not, a mountain between two lovers._

***

To love two countries. To hate two countries. To be feared by both and belong in neither. We have lost whatever we had to lose to the borders. Khalid dreams of a land where a mountain is just a mountain, no throat to no mouth.


End file.
